Between Scholarship and Church Politics: The Lives of John Prideaux, 1578–1650. By John Maddicott
Maddicott ends this excellent biography of John Prideaux with some reasons why the subject has not been tackled before. But Maddicott also concludes, and indeed he makes evident throughout the work, that a biography of Prideaux was needed: Prideaux made a very substantial contribution to the intelle...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2023
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| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2023, Volume: 74, Issue: 1, Pages: 419-421 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Maddicott ends this excellent biography of John Prideaux with some reasons why the subject has not been tackled before. But Maddicott also concludes, and indeed he makes evident throughout the work, that a biography of Prideaux was needed: Prideaux made a very substantial contribution to the intellectual life of his college (Exeter) through his 30 years as rector, and to the University of Oxford in the 27 years he acted as Regius Professor of Divinity and during the five terms he served as vice-chancellor. Maddicott’s account of Prideaux’s career shows that he was an able college administrator, increasing student numbers as well as raising funds and implementing large-scale building projects. He was a committed tutor, and he continued to oversee the education of undergraduates (particularly the nobly born) even when he held senior positions. He exerted an influence, often now invisible to us, on a number of the English clergy and ruling class. Through his act lectures and orations (delivered from 1616 until the 1630s and later printed), Prideaux was in a position to pronounce on what he saw as the orthodox divinity of the English church to one of the most important audiences for such a subject. He welcomed scholars from across Protestant Europe to Exeter College, and he gained an international reputation for learning. (The most complete printed edition of his works was published in 1672 in Zurich [p. 387].) Maddicott’s is a thorough and clear-eyed account of Prideaux, who was a commendable person in ordinary ways too, even if he was not without faults: from a humble family, he was lucky to find patronage that sent him to Oxford, but once there his hard work, tenacity, and ambition won him the fellowship on which his later career rested. Although as regius professor he could be an intemperate debating-opponent, this was mostly evident in the years when the ascendancy of Laud made Prideaux feel embattled. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/flac161 |